31.07.2019 | Abuse of the official powers by the officials in the process of preparing projects for the overhaul of an interstate highway in Tavush Region, and evaluating the costs of state procurement. Criminal case has been initiated

Within the framework of the exercise of its powers for state interests protection, the State Interests Protection Department of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Republic of Armenia has considered the documents received from the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technologies of the Republic of Armenia (hereinafter - the Ministry) regarding the preparation of projects for the overhaul of certain parts of the interstate highway / M-16, M-4-Voskepar-Noyemberyan-M-6 /, as well as works on the evaluation of costs.

During the investigation, it has been found out that on 29.11.2017 an agreement has been concluded between the Ministry and LLC, which also included major overhaul projects for this highway and evaluation of costs. Concerning this part, the amount of the agreement has amounted to 14.4 million AMD.

LLC has elaborated working project / with violations / not complying with the requirements of the agreement, and according to the project, the construction has amounted to 2 billion 319 million AMD. Regarding the project <<State non-departmental examination of projects of the Republic of Armenia>> CJSC on 02.19.2018 has approved the unjustified conclusion of the examination, where in the descriptive part the registered facts have not corresponded to the conclusions. In particular, despite the fact that it has been registered that the project does not comply with the current road construction standards, nevertheless, the compliance of the project for the overhaul of the highway with the legislation of the Republic of Armenia and the mandatory requirements of normative technical documents has been guaranteed.

On 20.02.2018, with a view to acceptance and delivery, the LLC has submitted to the Ministry works concerning the evaluation of expenses and preparing draft for overhaul of the highway.

In case of non-compliance with the requirements of the agreement, these works have been approved by the Ministry in February 2018 and on the basis of this they have been paid.

During the investigation, it has been found out that representatives of the ministry have not fulfilled their official obligations. In particular, in case of non-compliance with the requirements of the agreement, instead of not signing the acceptance and delivery protocol, and also sending back the negative conclusion in the prescribed manner, and taking measures to bring the company to criminal liability, the quality of the performed work has not been verified in a proper manner, and the agreement has not been previously verified, and under these conditions LLC unreasonably has been paid 14.4 million AMD.

In addition to that, it has also been found out that, on the basis of the draft under consideration, and in the result of state procurement for the overhaul of the highway, construction agreement has been concluded on 30.05.2018, and the cost of the agreement has amounted to 1 billion 298 million AMD and now the agreement is at the implementation stage.

Taking into account the fact that during the investigation, data have been obtained containing elements of crime that entailed grave consequences in the result of non-fulfillment of official obligations by officials, a criminal case has been initiated concerning the abovementioned cases in the Department for the State Interests Protection of the RA Prosecutor General's Office under Part 2 of Art. 308 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia. The implementation of the preliminary investigation by the criminal case has been entrusted to the RA IC.

Notice: Every person suspected in or charged with a criminal offense shall be presumed innocent unless proved guilty in the manner prescribed by the RA Criminal Procedure Code and unless the verdict comes into legal force.